Straight pull spokes

Why I don't like them

  • another type of spoke to keep spares of;
  • harder to get spokes (the ones I used with my Roval Traverse rear hub build had to be specially ordered from the US and cut to length);
  • no industry standards on how hubs are designed, so spoke length calculations can be difficult and hit and miss;
  • non-bladed spokes are painful to use because the spoke will turn in the hub flange - pliers are often necessary when truing to stop the spoke from turning;
  • must lace wheel in the spoking pattern dictated by the hub geometry (this means you can say do a 2x build on one size to use up some spokes that are 8mm shorter than required for 3x);
  • slightly harder to build with as the spokes will fall out of the hub - with j-bend spokes you can put them all in the hub and then lace up without them falling out as you rotate the wheel;
  • no real-world advantages in the built wheel.  Straight spokes don't make a wheel stronger, stiffer or even lighter compared to using j-bend spokes;

Advantages???

There are some, although for me they don't outweigh the disadvantages:

  • can replace spokes without removing cassette etc, although this is not always the case depending on the hub flange arrangement.

Related articles:

Marwi titanium spokes

Got 18 of these on special for no particular reason other than to check out the whole "titanium spoke thing". These are straight gauge 14g (2.0mm) spokes. 18 spokes weigh 71g, so they weigh 3.94g ...

Short spokes

It's not easy to get spokes in the lengths that you need for kid's bike wheel builds, but there are a few options available:

Shortening spokes

Here's how I do it (in this example I'm shortening a titanium spoke, but the procedure for stainless steel spokes is the same):

Sapim CX-Ray spokes

Pros:

Saving weight with less spokes

Two approaches:

Straight steerer 1 1/8 fork options

new MTB frames now almost exclusively have a tapered headtube and take a fork with a tapered steerer;

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